Wicked Games Academy

CHAPTER 12

People were stunned in the following weeks when Hale and Cory popped up to my side at our higher physical education classes or even Latin, calling me Rottings and laughing with me.

Most of the boys stopped playing ball outside since it was cold and some played chess (like me) or read books. The rowdy bunch like Clive played cards and soon I was pulled into it too.

Wyatt had started talking to me but I found out from Clive that surprisingly, Hale and Cory were partners and Wyatt was stuck with William Crawford.

William Crawford was a refuge from what where called the Eastern countries. Look wise he had monolid eyes and silky black hair he kept past the nape of his neck, which Wyatt always said was 'too' feminine.

However, I got along with William Crawford.

William Crawford wasn't as haughty as Samuel, who only spoke to Clive, but ranked fifth or sixth in our year. He didn't care about Wyatt and he would ignore any insults Wyatt said.

Will, as I began to call him, because Crawford wasn't really his family name, seemed to enjoy our chess sessions, too. We often went to the lounge, me with Clive and the other boys.

I wasn't one for pretending to be friends and extremely competitive so cards weren't fun and Will always sat in the corner so we played. We didn't had forced idle chatter and he wasn't upset at his losses.

After each move I took a long time, maybe five to ten minutes depending on how my enemy moved, he waited patiently, studying his own moves and calculating. He took even longer, but I appreciated how after each game he would ask me how I planned it and I would explain as the boys at Clive's table hollered over some loss.

They gambled with fake chips, and although teachers sometimes went to our lounge to see we didn't misbehave we had the top students in our grade. Me.Abel said nothing and always just peeked in and at our sudden silence, snicker before he left.

Mr.Abel taught Literature and would be strict in his class, wanting some profound interpretations even though our muscles were aching after our previous training.

Yet as a Dean he wasn't scary at all and hardly anyone got suspended. There were two possibilities, one was fighting, which was more common than not in a school for knights, and the second was cheating on tests, also shameful for knight to be's.

So we played in our lounge with the fireplace, sometimes Clive and the rest would roast chestnuts and we ate some. Other lounges were different, ours was for eleventh years and since chess and cards dominated, that's how it was. Most boys stayed in their rooms after classes or went to clubs.

We snuck past the twelfth year lounge once and we heard violin playing, and peeked in to see they were like some clowns. Some stood up on tables and sang as music played, and others were tossing beanbags into a hole on a board.

Although ours were more quiet as the boys who weren't affiliated with chess or cards mainly read books or talked amongst them, it was much more enjoyable.

I had never went to the lounge when it was just me, but Clive had brought me here along with Hale and Cory. Only Wyatt still talked over me in conversations with Clive and acted as thought Clive was his.

"You know we have a special winter excursion when it snows?" someone said at the cards table and we all turned to Cory.

"Wait, really?" Clive asked.

"Yeah, the eleven years and twelve years will fight in a forest full of snow. They choose teams of four and the worst thing is they have experience," Cory continued.